Hey guys! I got a Seagate expansion usb 3.0 1tb external harddisk(that really small compact one) a couple of months back and it was perfectly till today. ..well you see my friend dropped it from about 1 feet while the hdd was still connected and running. .mit became unresponsive and when I tried reconnecting, all that happens now is the blue led on the hard disk keeps blinking rapidly but the disk doesn't seem to run or get detected. ..I read online that the read arm may not have gone to its original position due to the sudden jerk but I guess openings the harddisk to fix it voids warranty...I have lots of precious data in there with no other back up (I trusted Seagate so much ).....is there anyway I could possibly fix this? Please please help! !
Ps: the harddisk doesn't run, the led blinks rapidly anf device manager shows 'usb mass storage' briefly before disconnecting. ..replacement is secondary. ..I want my data back first!

Hard drives are not made to be dropped whilst they are in operation, and this will be a solid reminder for any future hard drives you get/use.

'I trusted Seagate so much :(' - It is not a problem due to seagate and has absolutely nothing to do with the manufacturer. You should have a solid backup data plan of at least 3 devices (Main drive, backup drive, second backup drive or media such as CD)

Although in this circumstance it's not Seagate's fault, you shouldn't trust them. I have far more problems with Seagate's than any other drive manufacturers. WD impress me a lot, I'm not sure what they've been doing differently lately but their drives are excellent these days.

I never understand this... If your data is so critical, where is your copy? What if you would of lost this external disk.. What if it just stopped working on its own without being dropped.. What if you dropped it?

Data that you are not ok with loosing should be in more than 1 place at all times.. ie backed up.. This is an external disk, is this data not on your internal disk as well. External disks are good for "backup" of the data on the internal, and good for transport of data from one location to another.. Not so good for sole copy of your critical data that you do not want to loose.

Sorry but dropping a disk while its being used or even when its not being used is most like not good for them.. And sounds like your SOL.

And to be honest this is my first external hard drive so I had no idea about all the problems associated with it. ..I thought they were as trustworthy as internal ones..thats what made me satisfied on keeping a single copy. ...looks like I learnt my lesson the hard way :\

And to be honest this is my first external hard drive so I had no idea about all the problems associated with it. ..I thought they were as trustworthy as internal ones..thats what made me satisfied on keeping a single copy. ...looks like I learnt my lesson the hard way :\

"I thought they were as trustworthy as internal ones..thats what made me satisfied on keeping a single copy"

What??

As LogicalApex points out, Nothing is trustworthy!

So you have single copy of your "critical" data on internal hard drives? You need to back up stuff that can not be replaced.. OSes can be replaced, applications can be replaced - worse case can be repurchased, etc.

What can not be replaced is video of your kids 3rd bday party, pictures from your last vacation. Book your working on that is 3/4 done, etc.

HDD die, be it you drop them or not. Things happen - maybe you spill your lemonade on your PC/Laptop and it sparks and smokes and now your data is gone. You never know when that HDD might say I'm done - maybe it tmrw, maybe it is next week. Maybe its 3 years from now... Maybe it works for you for the next 10 years and you throw it in the trash without ever an issue, maybe not!!

So that video of your kids first steps better be in 2 or 3 or more places if want to make sure you have it!

Be it secondary HDD (internet/external), be it optical be it flash disk be it cloud storage, etc. Your "critical" data needs to be in more than 1 place.. And best you should have geographic diversity as well. What if tornado takes you house along with all the HDDs and optical and flash drives to OZ? What if someone breaks in and steals your computer/laptop and flash drive sitting on the counter, etc.

Video's of my grand daughter are on multiple HDDs in my house on different systems, they are on optical media at my house and my son's house and they are in the cloud with multiple providers.. These files are "critical" too me, so they are never just in 1 location except for the time I take them on the camera until I copy them to my computer. They stay on the camera until I have copied them to multiple locations/media - only after I have multiple copies is the copy on the camera removed.

I have nothing critical to keep, but even I use different cloud backups, as well as the copy on my PC, for things like photo's.

And as for the comment about external been as trustworthy as internal, they are - even when you drop them. Under which circumstances they are still as trustworthy as internal ones i.e. both types likely wont work afterwards.

Hey guys! I got a Seagate expansion usb 3.0 1tb external harddisk(that really small compact one) a couple of months back and it was perfectly till today. ..well you see my friend dropped it from about 1 feet while the hdd was still connected and running. .mit became unresponsive and when I tried reconnecting, all that happens now is the blue led on the hard disk keeps blinking rapidly but the disk doesn't seem to run or get detected. ..I read online that the read arm may not have gone to its original position due to the sudden jerk but I guess openings the harddisk to fix it voids warranty...I have lots of precious data in there with no other back up (I trusted Seagate so much ).....is there anyway I could possibly fix this? Please please help! !
Ps: the harddisk doesn't run, the led blinks rapidly anf device manager shows 'usb mass storage' briefly before disconnecting. ..replacement is secondary. ..I want my data back first!

The head smacked the platter when that happened. Either the head or the arm/mechanics are ruined. External drives are the backup drive not storage drives. Using any external or flash drive as the 1st point its stored is a terrible idea as they have a much higher failure rate than any other data device due to being portable. DriveSavers or someone like them can get your data, but be prepared for a car payment for a year or so.

And to be honest this is my first external hard drive so I had no idea about all the problems associated with it. ..I thought they were as trustworthy as internal ones..thats what made me satisfied on keeping a single copy. ...looks like I learnt my lesson the hard way :\

The majority of external drives are plain old regular drives in an enclosure; they're not any more or less trustworthy as any other. That being said, all drives die, and nobody in his right mind should be telling you otherwise.

"Keeping a single copy" means you have exactly zero backup. Besides, it's not just a matter of possible mechanical failure; you can end up with a corrupt file system, or a virus that'll wipe everything out, or simply delete the wrong folder yourself.

Bite the bullet and make sure you have some means of keeping a minimum of two copies of everything that's valuable to you. You might think it's a waste of money, but only until you recover a file from your backup set.